An easy way to make fabric rose brooch:
EQUIPMENT
All you need is a long strip of fabric, the wider the strip the large the petals, and the longer the strip, the more petals or rounds you will have. These can be hand or machine stitched and overlocking (serging) is not essential.
The best fabric to sue is a soft drapey one for small roses. Larger roses could be made with a stiffer fabric.
Some felt for the backing and a safety pin.
MAKING UP
For this rose I have used a strip of Georgette about 1 m long and 8 cm wide. This makes a 4 inch rose. The edges are not particularly straight, but that does not matter too much as it will add texture to the petals.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, experiment for different effects.
Fold along the long edge with right sides out, matching the raw edges as you go, you can either hand or machine stitch with a running stitch or overlock the edges. What you will have is a tube of fabric with stitching along one side.
Using a long thread doubled for strength, secure and gather one short end. This will make the centre of the flower.
Gather a short section, approx 5 cm and secure. Wrap around the mid section and secure to it.
Repeat this varying the size of the gathered sections and as it gets bigger include some straight sections increasing in size as you go further along the strip.
Gathering and wrapping in sections makes a more realistic rose than one that is just gathered and wrapped. Which if course, is another way to do this - gather the whole length and wrap round itself.
What you should end up with is a gathered rose which has petals that fold naturally. You might want to arrange them, by gently pulling into place, separating the double layer a bit until you have a pleasing shape.
FINISHING
To make this into a brooch, sew a circle of felt onto the back which covers all raw or overlocked edges. Fold the final raw edge of the side under this felt piece so all raw edges are behind the felt.
The size of the circle will vary with the size of the rose.
Sew a small strip of felt to the back and place a safety pin underneath and sew the other side in place. It's easiest to use an overcasting stitch for this. Pull your brooch into shape again and pin on clothes, bags, anywhere you want a decoration.
